"N. Koreans Rally Around Heir" is the Pravda-like headline on the Boston Globe home page under the news of the death of Kim Jong Il.

I found this hard to believe. Kim Jong Il's personality cult and communist, totalitarian system have given North Korea an annual GDP per capita estimated at $1,800, compared to $30,000 in the free, capitalist, democratic South Korea. The differences in political and economic systems and in related physical well-being are so stark that, as John McCain pointed out in a 2008 presidential debate, South Koreans are three inches taller than North Koreans. Why would North Koreans "rally around" such a brutal, dictatorial family regime rather than bidding it good riddance and breathing a sigh of relief that it is gone?

"N. Koreans Rally Around Heir" is the Pravda-like headline on the Boston Globe home page under the news of the death of Kim Jong Il.

I found this hard to believe. Kim Jong Il's personality cult and communist, totalitarian system have given North Korea an annual GDP per capita estimated at $1,800, compared to $30,000 in the free, capitalist, democratic South Korea. The differences in political and economic systems and in related physical well-being are so stark that, as John McCain pointed out in a 2008 presidential debate, South Koreans are three inches taller than North Koreans. Why would North Koreans "rally around" such a brutal, dictatorial family regime rather than bidding it good riddance and breathing a sigh of relief that it is gone?